Author: Patrick Sardo

Post-London post – Patrick

Well, I miss London, even if the weather wasn’t so great. I know I share that thought with others, but it is good to be home as well. Having been to London before, I wasn’t sure what to expect of this trip, but it exceeded my expectations is every way pretty much. I only spent a few days there when I went in late 2016, and didn’t get to see nearly everything I wanted to. This trip allowed me to really explore the city and the architecture, something I couldn’t focus on so much on my other visit.

London is easily one of my favorite cities I’ve ever been to, maybe only rivaled by Florence. The stuff we did during the day was always good, but I also loved that we had some time to explore in the evenings, as well as on our free day. Going off the beaten path somewhat was nice, and we could immerse ourselves in a part of the cities culture that we may not have been able to experience otherwise. There are so many hidden gems throughout the city, and we could only see so many. If I lived in London (which is something I would consider) I would probably have to explore a different area every night or weekend because of how vast and diverse it is.

Overall, I really enjoyed this trip. I made some friends and saw plenty of incredible things in the city. I’ll be trying my hardest to make it out to London again soon, because it really is one of the greatest cities in the world.

From Dover Street Market to Dukes Cupboard

I have had my free day planned out for a while now, so I knew exactly what I wanted to do and where. I have a huge interest in fashion, both on the sides of streetwear type clothing like Gosha Rubchinskiy, or high end Dior or Maison Margiela couture. I find the cultural impact of these two sides of fashion colliding to be really exciting, so I wanted to try and explore both of them. There is also something very architectural about the way that some designers work or how some stores and exhibits are designed, but I didn’t end up sketching because of such a tight time frame. I started at Selfridges, exploring all sorts of brands, including that of Virgil Abloh, who studied architecture at IIT and is one of the most popular and influential high end designers at the moment. I then moved onto a store called Dukes Cupboard, a small vintage streetwear store tucked away in a busy part of Soho. The amount of development in this area is crazy, as the streets surrounding it are all under construction. It reminds me a bit of the short north, with its never ending construction and revitalization. Next door is a store called Machine-A, which is spent a lot of time in, analyzing and drooling over clothes from Craig Green, Raf Simons, Calvin Klein, and more. A sales associate and I were chatting, and he and I were both very interested in how fashion and architecture can tie together in some ways. We had a great discussion, I spent more money than I wanted to, and I was on my way to Dover Street Market. The store is south of Soho, tucked away from any busy streets, but it gets an insane amount of traffic. The store alone has nearly 400,000 Instagram followers. The footprint of the store is small, but spans four floors, split up into smaller spaces based on the designer. If it wasn’t so busy, I would have sketched in there, as each of the small exhibits were all very different, but great in their own ways. Rick Owens, for example, has a very brutal type of space in the store, but Gucci has a colorful and inviting space. Seeing around 30 differently designed spaces all congregated into one building was both overwhelming, but awesome. You can see the way that the space mimics the clothing in terms of aesthetic, or the way that DSM has arranged it all to create a flowing procession through the store. I later went up to the Camden markets, but Dover Street Market and Machine-A were highlights of my day for sure.

A quick shot of the Rick Owens part of the store, with foam added to the walls and furniture designed by him and his wife added to the space.

Holland Park + The Design Museum

After our tour of Westminster Abbey, I had to make a decision of what museum to visit, and after considering the National Gallery, Tate Britain, and the Design Museum, I chose the latter of the three. I took the tube to Holland Park and walked south through the park on my way to the museum. I stopped for lunch at the café in the garden, and the space inside was so nice, with so much natural light, that I had to sketch it.

Looking out onto a patio at the café, I chose to not include furniture, as it would have taken away from the landscape and building itself.

The museum has an exhibit in Ferrari’s history, as it was their 70th anniversary last year. I chose to pay the £18 and see it, as I am a huge racing fan, and Ferrari fan. The exhibit included many hand drawn diagrams of the earlier Ferrari’s from the 1960’s, which was incredible to see up close. You could see the pencil marks and slight mistakes on them, but at the time, it didn’t matter, as the cars were all hand built anyway. As I made my way through the exhibit, I thought about what to sketch inside, and it hit me right at the end. I decided to try my hand at sketching something less architectural: the Ferrari F2001 driven by Michael Schumacher. Compared to its modern day counterparts, the car is aerodynamically simple, which made it easier to sketch. Getting the perspective just right was tough, but I think this is one of my favorite sketches so far. I focused less on line weight and more on working quickly, which made the sketch a little rougher, but better

A front view of the race car, this sketch only took about 10-15 minutes

Patrick’s Posts Part II

Day 3 started us off at the British Museum, specificially the Great Court. Architecturally, it must be one of the weirdest, but also one of the nicest interior spaces I’ve ever been in.

The wide angle lens camera of my phone helps take pictures of large spaces often, and the Great Court is no exception.

The 4 large temple fronts are not something you’d expect in an interior space, especially one that’s enclosed with a Mesh-like glass dome above. The reading room breaks up the space a lot and creates some hierarchy to the space, even if it’s not open. While the glass dome above is beautiful, I found it hard to sketch from any perspective. One of my initial fascinations with architecture was column capitals and the varying styles and interpretations of them, so I decided to detail that a little more. I walked up the steps wrapping around the reading room, up to the third floor cafe, and got nice and close to one of the ionic columns. Getting the proportions just right was tough, I wish I had heard Ruth’s measuring tips a couple days earlier! This is one of my favorite sketches so far, and I think has helped me realize that I tend to be better at sketching up close, smaller details rather than a large landscape or area.

One of the many column capitals in the Great Court of the British Museum.

Day 1 (Patrick)

DAY 1

I was expecting St. Paul’s cathedral to be my highlight of Day 1, but the Barbican Centre surprised me with its alluring landscape and incredible architecture. I didn’t know much about Barbican before, but after walking into the area, it felt like a whole new world to me. The loud sounds of the city were drowned out with the sounds of water splashing, and the eclectic styles that previously surrounded us turned into a tight knit group of brutalist buildings. After learning about failed affordable housing communities in the US, seeing a similar type of community (though not necessarily low income housing) was inspiring, and exciting.

A facade of one of the many apartment buildings in Barbican, highlighting both the greenery and concrete and the way the building sits on the site.

A view of the major area of congregation in Barbican.

Most in our group left shortly after we split up, but myself (and a few others) stuck around and explored most of the area. Even not having seen what an apartment looks like, I would live there in a heartbeat.

Patrick’s Pre-Departure Post

As I write this, I’m sitting at my studio desk in Knowlton, waiting for our early morning trip to the airport, and then off to London.  I’m both excited, tired, and nervous as I mentally go through the packing list and hope that I have everything I need.  Even though I have been before, it will still be quite an experience, and I will be seeing plenty of new things while I’m there.  It has been a busy past few weeks, with all my time being dominated by a midterm, the career fair, a studio project, and a graphics assignment.  As much as I would like to just hang out and do nothing for spring break, I am grateful that I have the opportunity to go on this trip.

In the last few hours before our journey starts, the things I am most looking forward to are seeing some of the sights like St. Paul’s Cathedral, the Tate Modern, and Kew Gardens.  I’m also excited to explore on my own on our free day, as I have been planning that for a while too.  Getting to know my classmates more and spending time with them is also something I look forward to.  The days will be busy and tiring, but I’m sure it will be one of the best experiences I have during college.

Patrick Sardo’s Bio

Hi all! My name is Patrick, and I’m from Coventry, Connecticut, a small town not far from University of Connecticut. I’m a second year architecture student, but this is my third year at Ohio State. I am also a member of Ohio State’s Varsity Rifle Team. I started off at Ohio State hoping to be a mechanical engineering major, but that didn’t work out, so I switched to architecture, which I think is the right fit for me! Obviously I really like architecture, but my other interests include music, fashion, art, and video games.

I love to travel, but I have only ever left the US once. I went to Italy with my mom and brother over Thanksgiving 2016. We went to Florence, Rome, San Gimignano, Pisa, and Sienna. It was amazing to see architecture in person that I’ve studied so much, which is why I’m also very excited for this trip to London.

I’m most excited to really immerse myself in the city of London, and experience the cultural differences, and explore the architecture and city itself. Since I have traveled to cities like Florence and Rome, which both have such a deep and rich history in art and architecture, I know how significant London is in that respect. I’m also excited to get more experience sketching, and hope that I can hone that skill somewhat while I take this class and while I’m in London.